Chicken Police News

[h2]First of all: Thank you! [/h2]

You, the players, the fans, our friends are the proof that the past two and a half years of passionate hard-work was totally worth it!



The idea of Chicken Police dates back to almost 10 years ago. It started as a novel, with the idea of turning it into a comic book, then there was a script of an animated feature film. Finally, in 2014-15 it became obvious that this has to be a video game, and slowly - but surely - the team assembled in 2017, and the project started.

Artwork from a short story published in Hungary / one of the first concepts vs. game footage from the finished product

While it started out as a simple 2D visual novel, we couldn't help but slowly evolve it into the 2.5D, fully voiced detective adventure with an original soundtrack, 30+ unique characters, 100.000+ word script, complex animations, and over 20 cutscenes. Our ambitions grew over time, but we knew that this all put together is the formula we were looking for.

The photo-shootings and the voice-recordings were definitely the most fun parts of the development!

We are not going to add too much glitter to this; it was an extremely hard ride. The constant change in scope and design, the team's building, alongside the game (we started as a three-person team, and now, we have 10 members in The Wild Gentlemen), financial and professional-contact limitations all hindered the development of the project.



However, we are extremely relieved that in the end, we overcome all of the obstacles, found a great publishing partner, had the chance to work with the best voice-recording studio in the world, and finished the game in a state that we are proud of, regardless that we are still planning to add a few more fixes and updates to make it as perfect as possible.

We loved Reboot Develop, almost died of tiredness at Gamescom, we lost in the jungle at GIC, and most importantly: we built our team from scratch with the most incredible people on the planet!

For this, we had to challenge ourselves, even crunch 2 or 3 times during development, to reach what we wanted. We did this out of pure passion because we love what we are doing more than anything. And fortunately, your feedback and reviews showed that this love towards the project is very much sensible in the game. :)

All in all, this was a great 2 year for us (regardless of how scary and strange year 2020 was...), with so much sweat and tears and joy, and in the end - a great relief. We are honored to have such a dedicated fanbase!

Please keep this up and spread the word to reach more and more people who adore carefully and lovingly crafted adventures.



-The Wild Gentlemen

One of the most exciting aspects of game development is character design. But what's so interesting about creating a character? First of all, you need to write the background story, figure out what type of animal he/she should be, endorse the most important personality traits, find the motivations, and find the model ... moreover, in our case two models, one human, and one animal, because in Chicken Police all characters are made with a pretty unique photo-manipulation technology.



Watch the video about how Natasha was made, the female protagonist of our story:
[previewyoutube]https://youtu.be/Bzb48xg_VBU[/previewyoutube]

Our main character artist Zoli tells us how the characters were made in the first place:

"The amount of time spent with one character is difficult to determine... It can be one and a half weeks if it's not problematic. But usually, it is. The NPC's are "single-phase" characters done in several (1-2) days.

However, there are complex characters (Our two main protagonists Sonny and Marty for example), and they are especially important."





"The biggest difficulty is creating the head. First, we used stock footage for some of the characters, but then we realized that it'd be better to use our own photos. This is where the wildlife parks and zoos came into the picture..."



"But it doesn't solve all the problems. The background and small depth of field are almost always inseparable from the head. Therefore, 85% of the time, I have to draw the hairs and feathers around our characters.

Zipp is full of tattoos and scars, Natasha's got an almost human look, with painted eyes. On Bubo, the glasses were built from scratch."



"Combining bodies and heads is difficult. In many cases, because the neck size is very different from that of a man, believable shadows are vital for a good and natural end result."





"Why did we decide on our own photography? From the above, I think it's clear. Same animal for different views, right angle, depth of field, illumination, and enough size!"





"For me, the most exciting task is to create a new creature that has never existed. Often the challenge itself is joyful. Seeing the starting material that looks hopeless but the strategies are in the head, that's how it can be solved! The greatest pleasure, finally, is to see the character in your own environment you built with so much love and care: In the game!

I am most pleased that I can work in such a team of professional people and such an exceptional project!"

Stuff I use: The characters are made in Photoshop only. (on an 8-year-old PC, but on a much newer and better monitor, and on a drawing tablet)
I also use a Canon 5DsR camera with professional optics for the photoshoots."

- Zoli



Thank you for reading our post!

Don't forget to play and love Chicken Police. ;)
(also, try the demo if you didn't do that already!)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1084640/Chicken_Police/

Now's the chance to peck this "delightfully absurd and surprisingly deep", "beautifully realized", "hilarious and serious", "cluckin awesome" animal-noir-adventure - Chicken Police on a 20% discount!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1084640

The Wild Gentlemen wishes you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

This dev diary post was originally posted in 2019 - now it's slightly updated and re-uploaded (because of nostalgia, and- ) to celebrate the release of the game.

Bánk, the project's writer-director, gathered for us which games were especially influential in creating Chicken Police's story, world, and characters. They might not come as a surprise, but the reasons are. ;)

Bánk "I wanted to be a videogame developer since my childhood. Among other things, these games were the ones that eventually drove me to this journey and even played a huge role in the development of Chicken Police."

[h2]GRIM FANDANGO – For Love and Bones[/h2]

Well... what can I say? To me, Grim is everything! It was maybe the most definitive gaming experience of my childhood and also turned out to be one of the most determinate experiences of my adulthood too. Unforgettable characters, endlessly exciting and insane story, the music, the art-direction, the voice-acting, simply everything! For a long time, I only had the demo version of the game, which I've completed about 10-15 times, if not more. I didn't even understand the text completely, I learned English from video games, and then I was less than a beginner. So I came back to it again and again, and I understood more and more every time. Not just the text, but what the game really wants to say...

Grim taught me that no matter how great your setting and your story is, the characters are always your most important assets! - That's why I've created my (silly and strange, but effective) character generation formula, which I use ever since, and Grim, among others, made me fell in love irrevocably with the noir genre, and movies like Gilda, The Big Sleep, Double Indemnity or Casablanca. (which is not even a real noir, but that's another topic)

Manny's adventure also taught me that music is one of the most important elements of moody games like these. "Un dos tres cuatro... ta ta taaaaa!"

Huge heartfelt thanks to Tim Schafer, Peter McConnell, and Tony Plana, amongst many others, who made this gem of a game a reallity!



[h2]L.A. NOIRE – The Golden Boy[/h2]

Heh... a no-brainer, eh? Yeah... not even a question. By the time this game came out, noir was already one of my favorite genres. L.A. Noir was not only an almost perfect story with a fantastic mood but the definitive investigating simulator. Unfortunately, the project was bleeding from a few wounds (Somewhat the full open-world structure and the lack of focus on the main storyline hurt the experience a little), but it still inspired us immensely. So, huge respect and thank you, Team Bondi!



[h2]POLICENAUTS AND SNATCHER – Neon lights and buddy-cop noir[/h2]

Both of them are amazing detective games in Mr. Kojima's unique storytelling, featuring real, alive characters (and hilarious dialogues at times). Policenauts is maaaaybe a little closer to my heart because of the buddy-cop feel, which Chicken Police also borrowed in the end. If you thought about it, it's Lethal Weapon in sci-fi version, and it's hard to come up with anything cooler than that...

Furthermore, these games' gameplay is similar to what we created, with dialogues and interrogation being the main focus. Cult classics, that's true, but still undeservedly ignored. (REMASTER, anyone???!)



[h2]BLADE RUNNER – Do the androids dream of great videogames?[/h2]

When I first saw it as a child, it made my brain almost-literally explode (it still does even today, when I get back to it from time to time). Hardcore noir-adventure with great mini-games and even some action sequences, and that "camera-photo" riddles (I don't know how to address them) were almost surreal like I've never seen again ever since.

I also LOVE the original novel by Philip K. Dick (and all of P.K.Dick's works to be honest), and the movie version is very close to my heart too, so it's a no-brainer BR is in my top games. (and yes, Deckard was an android! - at least in the movie...)



[h2]ALAN WAKE – "Previously on Alan Wake"[/h2]

An undeservedly ignored game. Wake masterfully twists the literary topoi of classic pulp-horror novels and their movie versions. Simply a forgotten masterpiece, a never made Twighlight episode in a game form. I've completed it a thousand times, and - when I'll have time to play anything -, I'm sure I'm going to reach for it again.
"Previously on Alan Wake" I'm never going to get this sentence out of my head.



[h2]SAM & MAX HIT THE ROAD – Total mindcluck![/h2]

Shame or not, I've only run into this game in my adulthood. I started to play with it at the insistence of our programmer, Péter, and its humor, breakings of the fourth wall, and the irresistible chemistry of the two main characters just blew my mind. How the cluck I don't played this already a hundred times???!

I'm still trying to recover from it, with more or less success... (probably less)



[h2]+1 / BIOSHOCK - Would You Kindly?[/h2]

For me... there's Bioshock, and there's everything else. Narrative design, writing, characters, setting, music, mood - Bioshock is one of a kind! Whatever game I'm working on, or will be in the future, Bioshock always affects me one way or another. It's definitely on my bucket-list: I'll have to shake hands with Ken Levine once.

"Would You Kindly" - is still the best plot-twist in every game ever!



[h2]+2 / THIEF 2 : The Metal Age - Iron trees? Not in my part of town.[/h2]

This... this is maybe the strangest entry in this list yes, but hear me out! How is Thief a noir??? Well, the original Thief series (especially Thief 2) borrows heavily from the film-noir heritage. A grumpy, morally compromised anti-hero with inner-monologues, distorted shadows, and silhouettes, a dark city with corrupted cops and politicians, seemingly endless nights, complex mysteries, and even a great femme fatale! (you are the best, Victoria!)

But what was even more important as an influence, than the medieval-noir setting, was the amazing and still unmatched worldbuilding of the first three Thief games.
These games (and especially the second one - The Metal Age) inspired me to always give no1 priority to the well-thought-out structure of the world and the deep, carefully-written lore, no matter what kind of story I'm creating.



"To sum it up: Maybe the most important thing is that the mood and the atmosphere must be coherent. In creating narrative games, you must pay attention to a lot of things that the player maybe won't even notice (or will be affected only subconsciously), but all in all, I believe everything stands on the characters, who we'll learn to love or hate in order to be breathing with them within the world they live in."

[h3]It all depends on whether you, the player, want to know: is the character has a life outside of the game? If the answer is yes, you, as a writer, did your job well.[/h3]

- Bánk & The Wild Gentlemen

The legendary Chicken Police needs your help. Not only with solving a mysterious case, but with fighting for the Steam Award nominations in a category that might aswell have been created just for this game!

As you all loved the game so much and highlighted the visual style as one of your favorite parts about Chicken Police, we decided to enter the competition in the "Outstanding Visual Style" category on the Autumn Steam Awards! We would be super happy if you shared your love and supported us with a vote for Chicken Police in the "Outstanding Visual Style" category!

[h2]But why should you vote for us?[/h2]

A lot of love, time and conception went into our game. It's not just the interesting animal-noir style that is extraordinary. The combination of the art, special humor, an intense story, the professional voice overs, and the atmospheric music make The Wild Gentlemen's indie debut a one-of-a-kind experience.
Chicken Police – Paint it RED has already turned quite a few heads with its unconventional art style. “Bojack Horseman meets Sin City” has been a common reaction, but of course, there’s more to it than meets the eye.



[h2]This special art style was an intense process...
[/h2]

At first, our goal was an adventure game in the classic pixel-art style. But after playing around with some concepts, the contradictory flair of photorealistic characters and scenery and absurd human-animal hybrids, convinced developers and publisher alike. All photos, which are actually real animals, were taken by the developers themselves, with the exception of dangerous predators, says Director Balint Bánk Varga. The stars are mostly zoo animals, but Natasha, the cat, for example is a real professional and got a proper photo session in a studio.



The approach for the scenery is similarly complex. Since the game is set in a fictional world, every location is handcrafted. Once a scene is written, along with instructions for the artists, they create a concept artwork. If everybody is content with the approach, successively a 3D mockup and 3D render are created, cut into pieces and rebuilt into a 2.5D final scene with lights and filters.



"Maybe the most important thing is that the mood and the atmosphere must be coherent. In creating narrative games, you must pay attention to a lot of things that the player maybe won't even notice (or will be affected only subconsciously), but all in all, I believe everything stands on the characters, whom we'll learn to love or hate to be breathing with them within the world they live in.

It all depends on whether you, the player, want to know, is the character have a life outside of the game? If the answer is yes, you, as a writer, did your job well." says Bánk



All your nominations and feedback mean the world to us! Thanks for your support!

Your Chicken Police Team